Hymn to the Dairymaids on Beacon Street

Christopher Morley 1890 (Haverford) – 1957



Sweetly solemn see them stand,
Spinning churns on either hand,
Neatly capped and aproned white
Airy fairy dairy sight.
Jersey priestesses they seem
Miracling milk to cream.
Cream solidifies to cheese
By Pasteural mysteries,
And they give, within their shrine,
Their communión in kine.
Incantations pure they mutter
O'er the golden minted butter
And (no layman hand can pen it)
See them gloat above their rennet.
By that hillside window pane
Rugged teamsters draw the rein.
Doff the battered hat and bow
To these acolytes of cow.
Genuflect, ye passersby!
Muse upon their ritual high-
Milk to cream, yea, cream to cheese
White lacteal mysteries!
Let adorers sing the word
Of the smoothly flowing curd.
Yea, we sing with bells and fife
This is the whey, this is the Life.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

39 sec read
111

Quick analysis:

Scheme AABBCCDDEEFFGHIIJJKLDDMMNN
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 777
Words 132
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 26

Christopher Morley

Christopher Morley was accepted to UCLA in 1969 with a major in mathematics. more…

All Christopher Morley poems | Christopher Morley Books

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